Fight Fraud with a 60-day Free Trial of QuickScan from 700Credit

Brian Pasch0:00Hi, this is Brian Pasch, and welcome to another exciting podcast interview. I am so glad. Welcome back to the show. Bob Lettis from 700Credit. Bob, welcome back to the show.

Bob Lettis0:21Thank you, Brian. And looking forward to next week in Arizona at the DMSC.

Brian Pasch0:26Yeah, I mean, we're going to have the largest turnout of any of our conferences, so we're really excited. You know, Bob, you've been on the show for years preaching about credit first, credit first, credit first, give consumers the ability to know what they can afford, use that data to present vehicles that are in their affordability range, and to make it easier for people to buy a car. But, you know, a lot has changed. And the other day, I just saw something on X, a video that shows how easy it is now for AI tools to create a fake driver's license or a passport. And it brings up the latest educational message that you're bringing to dealers, that even before credit first,

Brian Pasch1:23dealers should be taking a mindset of fraud first, at a high level, Bob. What do you mean by that?

Bob Lettis1:31Well, absolutely, Brian. It's this. With so much of the sales process starting online, and with the fraudsters out there, they're so far advanced now than they were 10 years ago, even. It makes it very, it makes it very, very important that you're protecting yourselves and knowing exactly who you're talking to instantly up front in the process. We've been pushing a credit first process for years and telling everybody, you know, pre-call, I'll get that live credit data up front. But what's the point if you're getting the pre-call data up front if you're not talking to the real person? It could be a fake identity. It could be a synthetic identity or an AI bot.

Bob Lettis2:17So the key is, whether it's online or in-store, what you want to be able to do is make sure that you've identified that person as a real customer so that you could start the journey in a safe mode.

Brian Pasch2:29So let's talk about just historically. Dealers have had paper deal jackets. We know that with the 2022 Safeguards Rule, these paper jackets become a liability. Bob, as you're talking to dealers about securing and validating customer data, what do you tell them to do with all this paper that's hanging around, which while really is valuable for identity theft and people who are trying to scam consumers?

Bob Lettis3:07Well, as we know, paper is a thing of the past from the deal jacket standpoint. Digital is where everything is going. Digital is where we want you to move. Digital is where the safeguards is guiding us to go for a more secure sales process. So the key thing is, is getting it away from paper in a digital, in a, you know, in a paper file that's just laying there and waiting for someone to get their hands on it. We've had many cases, even this, I go back and I give this example, Brian. If you go back 15 years ago, we had credit reports, paper credit reports in boxes.

Bob Lettis3:54You know, people would have whole rooms filled with credit reports. And what happened? They were getting stolen. That was valuable, valuable data. And all it takes is one bad person at a dealership to make everything go bad. So what we did as an industry, we cleaned that up. And we, you know, we, we instructed and trained and educated to, to not having paper credit reports around. So we're doing the same thing now with the, with the paper file jackets and getting them into digital. We've had instances even where fraudsters have broken into a dealership and they didn't break in to steal a car. They broke in looking for the paper file jackets because those paper file jackets have everything you need.

Bob Lettis4:44They've got social securities. They've got driver's licenses. They got pictures. They've got information on that customer to, that they can use and create fake identities. And that's much more valuable down the road than just picking up a vehicle alone. But why, but why not protect yourself from both protecting your vehicles as well as your data? And, and that's what having this information in the deal jacket and having products like a driver's license scanning verification system will do, will do for you.

Brian Pasch5:21So let's talk about that. I honestly, I have not been speaking enough about fraud and risk management with dealers and their data. You know, I've been talking a lot about CDPs organizing the data, but you know, our podcast interview today kind of reminded me like, man, we've got to start adding some security discussions around data storage and management. Let's start with the driver's license. How is 700Credit helping dealers make sure that when someone's online or someone's in the store showing a photo of a driver's license or scanning their driver's license? What is your tech doing to try to sniff out fraud?

Bob Lettis6:11A good question, Brian. And here's the thing. Almost every dealer I know has some type of driver's license scanner, but that's all it is. It's a driver's license scanner. And the problem with the old fashioned driver's license scanners was they weren't working. They weren't protecting against fraud. And they aren't updating the information or the way that they're scanning those driver's licenses. So with that, what we've been able to create is not just a driver's license scanner. It's an ID verification process. It's an all-in-one where we're using multiple databases and multiple protection pieces for the dealer. We're not just scanning the driver's license front and back.

Bob Lettis6:54We're taking facial recognitions front and side. We're doing DMV protection. We're doing synthetic fraud, regular fraud. So we're doing multiple components all at one time instantaneously to protect that dealer up front so that when they start the process, they know exactly that they're talking to a legitimate person.

Brian Pasch7:18Love that. And Bob, you know, since, again, this is a new topic for me, and maybe there are many dealers here who might not have a current threat or risk assessment. For every, you know, dealer that you're working with, how often are you catching people who are trying to fraudulently purchase a car? What is it every month is a dealer sniffing out some scam artists trying to steal from the dealer?

Bob Lettis7:53Well, we know this, and you've talked to thousands of dealers, and so have I over the years. I can't think of any dealer that I know of in the industry that hasn't lost a car or had some type of fraud happen up front in their sales process. So we know it happens on a continual basis. We know we can't stop everything. But what we do know is the dealers that are using a tool like 700Credit has up front in the process, it is catching the fraudsters.

Brian Pasch8:26Okay.

Bob Lettis8:27I don't have the stats to tell you exactly what percentage or how many each day that are out there that we're able to catch. But literally, you know, we have over 22,000 dealers at 700Credit. So I know our product is out there in thousands of dealers today. And it's just a matter that we know it's working. We hear it from our dealers. And it's a very, very inexpensive way to protect yourself up front in the process, whether it's online or in-store.

Brian Pasch9:01Love it. And, Bob, you're integrated, right, directly with, like, Reynolds, CDK. So the information that you're collecting or pulling is always being directly injected into the DMS deal, right?

Bob Lettis9:17Absolutely. One of the things that's catapulted 700Credit success over the last 10 years is the fact that not only do we have over 22,000 dealers, which is about 70% of the market, we've also spent a lot of time integrating all the DMSs, the CRMs, the digital lead companies, equity mining companies. We've got integrations with about 250 software providers. So when it comes to deal jackets, which is usually done in the DMS, or fraud protection, driver's license scans, which is done up front with the CRMs, we have integrations with those. So people like CDK and Reynolds have exclusive and special integrations with us that make things automatic, as well as we're now integrating our product into the major CRMs so that it makes it, for the dealer,

Bob Lettis10:12they don't have to really go out and do anything on their end with the integrations that are going to be there to support the dealer to make their processes easy and simple and at a low cost.

Brian Pasch10:24Maybe dealers also don't know, but your product is also integrated in a lot of online retailing tools, right? I mean, they may not know it as 700Credit, right? But you're powering a lot of decisioning in today's modern digital retailing and credit pre-approving tools, right?

Bob Lettis10:43Absolutely. Companies like Carnell, you know, the Roadsters, Gubagoo, you've got all of these online tools, AutoTrader, that are out there. We power a lot of these with our soft pull data, and now they're reaching out to us and we're in discussions with many of them on our driver's license ID verification process as well, because they know that it's all needed. So, the DMSs, the CRMs, the digital retailing tools, they're going to use us in a multitude of ways with our credit data as well as our compliance protection.

Brian Pasch11:21Love, love that. And you know what I said earlier, I mean it, when you see how quickly, I mean, I don't know, there's a latest trend where everyone's making little bubble pack toys of themselves, you know, or I don't know, you know, making better headshots of themselves. It's amazing, like in seconds, how photorealistic imagery, fake stamps on passport pages, I mean, it's nuts how accurate things can be. And I think dealers need to understand, as we move to more and more digital first transactions, it's still not the highest percentage, but a lot of things are starting online. Man, dealers need to take data security seriously.

Brian Pasch12:19Bob, you work with dealers directly, you work with systems integrators. Those who are listening in say, man, I want to see how this new driver's license authentication technology is working. What's the best way for them to reach out to you to, you know, schedule a demo, talk about pricing?

Bob Lettis12:43Well, first of all, the good thing is, is the majority of the dealers are already 700Credit customers. So they should have a, their, their, their regular salesperson that they talk to, and they could easily just pick up the phone call 700Credit. If they can't remember who that salesperson is, they will, somebody will get them to their correct 700Credit rep. And simply just ask to know a little bit more about, uh, our QuickScan product and, uh, the ID verification process and our protection process that we offer. And the best thing is, you know, for dealers to know, this is not something that's going to cost them thousands of dollars.

Bob Lettis13:26Uh, literally, uh, the cost on this is, uh, less each month than what a dealer would spend on a pizza party, uh, at their store. And the beauty of it is, is this with 700Credit, we know it works and we want the dealer to feel comfortable and not worry about taking a risk and spending money that they, uh, don't need on a product that won't work for them. We offer a 60 day free trial on this QuickScan product. So there is no reason, uh, that a dealer shouldn't try it. There's no reason that a, uh, dealer has for any monetary risk. Uh, you get a full 60 day free trial on it.

Bob Lettis14:06And at the end of that 60 days, uh, we don't have, uh, many dealers that ever cancel that product at that point.

Brian Pasch14:13I love it. You know, there's so many products that dealers do take risk on Bob and this, well, obviously the fact that you have 22,000 dealers, you're doing the right thing. This is a no brainer, especially as synthetic fraud and just the sophistication of digital fraud. I mean, I see some of the commercials now, Bob, where, you know, they are, they're telling you, Hey, be careful that people don't try to, uh, put a lien on your property or steal your deed out from underneath you. I'm like, wow, they're getting that good that, you know, people who have property, maybe that they're not paying attention to all of a sudden gets transferred out of their name.

Brian Pasch14:54It is serious business today.

Bob Lettis14:56It's very serious business, Brian. And here's one stat that, uh, all of the auto dealers and ownership should be aware of, uh, fraud in the automotive industry is now over $9 billion.

Brian Pasch15:11Okay.

Bob Lettis15:12So even if we could cut that down 20%, that's huge, uh, that's billions of dollars. So the, the key thing is, is this auto is one of the biggest areas that they're preying on because as usual, we're a little bit behind other industries out there. And it, we've just made it easy for these fraudsters to step into automotive and rob us blind and products, uh, like the, uh, QuickScan product, uh, that are trying to stop this process of fraud at the beginning, uh, is what's going to, you know, help stop the thing. So it's just, it's just a matter of the industry being aware, knowing how, how much fraud is out there today and how it's not going to go away until we step up as an industry and show these fraudsters that we're taking it seriously.

Bob Lettis16:05And we're building these protections in to protect our businesses.

Brian Pasch16:09I love it. Well, you heard it here direct from Bob for years. He's been educating dealers. Look, um, why not set some expectations at the beginning of a transaction with a credit first mindset, uh, giving consumers viable options and also loading up the talk tracks for your salespeople to have a better retail experience. And now he's, he's taking it one step further before you start having a conversation about payments price and exchanging data and details. Let's make sure that this person you're dealing with is the person that their ID states. And I love the 60 day free trial on the QuickScan platform. So dealers, what are you waiting for?

Brian Pasch16:52Head over to 700Credit's website, call your local sales rep, or well, just come over to Bob at the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Arizona. That's April 27th, 28th, 29th. We can't wait to, uh, have this conference at this new location. And now for the foreseeable future, we'll be in Scottsdale. So, uh, dealers, if you're hearing this podcast this week, before the conference starts, it's Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. It's not too late to get a ticket and come out to today's most advanced digital marketing technology and first party data. Activation and security minded conference, you should be at DMSC. And if this is the first time you're listening to one of my podcast interviews, there are hundreds of conversations with dealers, entrepreneurs, tech leaders, and security experts like Bob, uh, helping dealers improve automotive retail.

Brian Pasch17:56So just search for the Brian Pasch podcast on your favorite podcast player and listen in to the great conversations. Hey, Bob, thanks for coming back on. Thanks for being a sponsor of dealer education. And I look forward to seeing you down in Arizona.

Bob Lettis18:14Thank you, Brian. Look forward to seeing you next week at the show.

Brian Pasch18:17All right. Uh, thanks everyone for listening in and I'll see you next time on another podcast interview. Bye.